Tag Archives: winter

After a stupidly early start, the intrepid puddle-hunter and her not so willing assistant set out shortly after breakfast. With clearing skies, it was important to get out quickly and get in a good amount of hunting. We started with some small puddles in the drive, they were quickly dealt with through some systematic stamping. We were headed for the oval where earlier surveillance had indicated strong signs of puddle activity. On entering the oval precinct we were quickly rewarded with a medium sized puddle on top of a man hole. Some stomping, splashing and kicking quickly subdued the puddle and we were off to hunt bigger game. A new, never before encountered puddle was spied and off we set to conquer it. This puddle was large, with unformed edges, you were in the puddle before you knew it – it was a tricky beast. The intrepid puddle hunter did her best, but she soon needed the support of her not so willing assistant. After a few minutes of walking back and forth through the puddle and some serious stomping, the intrepid puddle hunter declared the puddle conquered. Signs of the struggle were evident on her leggings, but in general she was unscathed.

Taking into account the weather activity of the previous 24 hours the not so willing assistant suggested to the intrepid puddle hunter that the gate puddle, a previous conquest would be back and as large as ever. This suggestion was met with enthusiasm and down the hill to the oval proper we went. There we spied the gate puddle, unaware of our presence or intentions, it calmly sat in the groove under the gate. The intrepid puddle hunter approached it cautiously, this puddle needs to be treated with respect – there is no grass in this puddle, only mud. The initial foray into the puddle was easy, so the intrepid puddle hunter decided to use the gate as an extra weapon. This was her undoing and the puddle struck, down went the intrepid puddle hunter, the puddle covered her lovely jacket with mud and flooded her boots. The not so willing assistant charged to the rescue and extricated the intrepid puddle hunter with only a trickle of water getting inside the boots. The intrepid puddle hunter was not to be beaten, the gate puddle would be subdued! After getting her not so willing assistant to empty her boots, the intrepid puddle hunter charged back into the fray and stomped the gate puddle with all she had. Finally the puddle was conquered and she was off to new grounds.

The playground offered some new conquests and some time out. As her clothes were already wet, playing on the wet swings and wet slide were undertaken as well deserved R&R. The swing puddle was deemed only worthy of throwing the boots into, but the newly discovered bench puddles were properly dispatched. By now the not so willing assistant was watching the sky anxiously and considering the large amount of housework waiting back at puddle hunting HQ. The intrepid puddle hunter was convinced that there were more puddles to find and conquer and set off to the netball courts and bike track. Unfortunately few puddles were to be found in this vicinity, to make up for the lack of stomping opportunities, the not so willing assistant encouraged the trees to rain on the intrepid puddle hunter, thus ensuring she was damp from top to toe.

The sighting of a faithful hound out with some other brave people encouraged the intrepid puddle hunter back towards HQ, however on spying the gate puddle a diversion was made to ensure it was properly conquered and stayed conquered. The gate puddle put up no resistance this time, but the advent of further rain suggested that it would be back stronger than ever.

We slowly wound our way back to HQ, revisiting the conquests of the morning to ensure they were all aware of the might of the intrepid puddle hunter’s stomps. On arrival back at HQ we examined our wounds, removed our protective clothing and clothed ourselves in dry gear (and glory).

The not so willing assistant convinced the intrepid puddle hunter to refuel with food and sleep and then started to tackle the never ending housework, keeping all in readiness for another day of puddle hunting soon.